Abstract:
Few regions in America can equal the rich literary history of San Francisco and its surrounding areas with authors such as Bret Harte, Mark Twain, Robert Louis Stevenson, Isadora Duncan, Jack London, Robinson Jeffers, Dashiell Hammett, John Steinbeck, William Saroyan, Henry Miller, and Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Realms of Gold gives us a fresh look at the lives of these writers and portrays the development of a city from a Gold Rush boom town through its rapid growth as a commercial port and rail head, its destruction in 1906, its rebirth, to its post-World War II status as a major urban center.